16U or 18U showcase to attend?

With the exception of the big national events my son's team played in 17 and 18 events when they were 16s. 

Our experience was the boys wanted the higher competition as the majority of team were already on their varsity teams by that time. 

Benefited all of them IMO as the ones who have the talent to play after HS got on coaches' radars early with 4 commits prior to starting their junior years.   Several more well into recruiting process.

Is there not much competition at 16U?  Or do you need to find better tournaments?  

The reason I asked is that my son is on a 16U for this summer and they exclusively playing in 16u tournaments. 

This is in Texas so maybe the competition is better here?

Yes you'll be fine in the 16u.. Unless your summer team is full of future D1 players.

A lot of talent in Texas, Plus the neighboring States will have teams attending

My son's 16U travel team is like the elite team, 2/3 of them are freshman. 3 freshmen can throw 85mph with nasty offspeed. They already got high D1 scouts followup. That's why we played up in the local 18U tournaments, to keep them challenged. 

 

But for the nation-wide showcases, would it be 16U or 18U drawing more scouts attendance? I believe they probably can standout in the nationwide 16U, but the question is would lots of scouts even show up in the 16U events?

IMO, I would play the major Tourny's at 16U and or 17u...I would think that the big schools are well past looking at the 18U's and are looking for the future players.  Although I have sen organizations stick around and play both divisions when they run consecutively

Here is how it works at PG, either WWBA or BCS tournaments.

14u - very few colleges, even less MLB scouts

15u - some colleges, very few MLB scouts

16u - a very large number of colleges, decent number of MLB scouts

17u - the most college coaches and the most MLB scouts

18u - large number of colleges and large number of MLB scouts

 

And of course every player, every age, is entered into he PG database which is followed by pretty much everyone involved in scouting or recruiting. Anyway, things have changed over the past several years.  You will find the most College recruiters at 17u, followed closely by 16u with 18u somewhere below that.  However when it comes to MLB scouts the order would be 1. 17u, 2. 18u, 3. 16u.  Reason being colleges are heavily recruiting HS underclassmen, but MLB can't draft them yet.

 

 

Thanks PGStaff, this is very good info. Another question, I heard some people said there are too many teams attending the PG tournaments, the players may get "lost" in the big event like PG. And recommend us to go to other smaller showcase tournament. What is your take on this?

Your asking PG if you should attend their events or not :-)

 

My son's team (16U) will be playing a lot of the PG tournaments this summer.  Both 16u and 17u.  We will also do a few very small targeted "showcase" tournaments where there may only be 5 or 10 schools.  Since we are in Georgia, those would be schools in the southeast.   I think that gives the players both:  A chance to be seen by the schools they are interested in on a smaller setting and a chance to play in front of schools that may not have seen that kid yet.  Sure, you need to stand out more at the big PG events, but then again, it is those kids that most schools will be comparing our sons to anyway.  

We are heading to our first PG events this summer and I have been trying to get a better handle on exactly how these work.  I get the impression that as you progress through the tournament - hopefully getting out of pool play - that the bracket games provide "enhanced" exposure (except for maybe pitchers that have already thrown).  As such, I would think there would be some desire to not get thumped early on and end up playing consolilation games. 

 

Does anyone have any insight as to how the 3-4 days of a tournament progress with respect to scouts?  For instance, do more show up on a Saturday as opposed to early pool play on Thursday/Friday?  I think we have an average team so there will not be any holding back on early pitching - I suspect my 2017 will be pitching in one of the pool games as will the two other top starters so as to try and get into the bracket.

 

 

My son plays on a top travel team in TX. We have played many PG events and have advanced out of pool play almost every event.

Whether we are in GA or FL we are followed by the TX college coaches the heaviest and the other coaches present are generally there to see one of our specific players. They don't often just show up they generally are deliberate in who they see.

Point is IMO the average player needs to set the stage so to speak. Give them a reason to show up and communicate your schedule.  From what I have seen with my son's teammates this is especially true for position players.  Going to any event to be "discovered" is oftentimes unfruitful.

Thanks for insight.  Our team was not originally formed to be a true elite type team but rather a good skills opportunty more related to high school baseball.  Am looking forward to seeing how they stack up to more seasoned "PG" type travel teams.  Some could probably benefit from trying to join a "better" team, but they seem to really enjoy this team (pulled together from 4 local high schools) and continue to truly enjoy baseball

 

Hopefully we'll get matched up against some really good teams (and get indirectly scouted??) until we get some measurables under our belt.  Realize lots of kids are probably a few steps ahead of our kids as it relates to the recruiting timeline but we seem to have a few that, while maybe not studs at 14u, have continued to develop and are starting to get a feel for where they might fit.  Hopefully they can set the stage a little better for some of the tournaments later in the summer.

I have really enjoyed the PG events. Every pool should have at least one really top team. You will get a feel for how many truly talented kids there are in the U.S. And gives good perspective on that if your son is fortunate to play any baseball after HS they are blessed. Have fun and good luck.